Counting of votes to be held at 90 centres in Haryana

All arrangements, including tight security, have been made for the counting of votes at 90 centres in Haryana on May 16, Chief Electoral Officer, Shrikant Walgad said today.

"The counting would commence at 8 am and it would be held at 90 counting centres set up across 32 locations in the state," he said here, adding that 32 Election Observers would also be on duty, while Assistant Returning Officers conduct the counting of votes at these centres.

As part of security measures, Walgad said a three-tier cordoning system would be set up to prevent unauthorised entry inside counting centres.

"No unauthorised person will be allowed in the counting halls," he said.

The EVMs would be taken to the voting hall or centre from the strongroom in the morning of May 16. Initially, the postal ballots would be counted, after which the counting of votes would begin at 8.30 am, Walgad said, adding that the entire process of transportation of EVMs would be videographed.

Elections to the 10 parliamentary seats in Haryana were held on April 10.

The fate of 230 candidates has been sealed in the EVMs by nearly 72 per cent of the 1.6 crore eligible voters who had cast their votes.

In 2009, Congress had won nine seats and Haryana Janhit Congress one.
Among the main contenders whose fate would be known on Friday are Congress' Deepinder Hooda, Naveen Jindal, state party chief Ashok Tanwar, Shruti Choudhry, Arvind Sharma and Avtar Singh Bhadana, all seeking re-election from their respective constituencies of Rohtak, Kurukshetra, Sirsa (SC), Bhiwani-Mahendergarh, Karnal and Faridabad.
From Hisar, the fate of Haryana Janhit Congress chief Kuldeep Bishnoi, seeking re-election, will be known three days from now.
From Gurgaon seat, the fate of former Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh, who quit Congress to join BJP, and is locked in contest against Aam Aadmi Party's Yogendra Yadav, will also become clear.
Earlier, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, whose son Deepinder Singh Hooda fought from Rohtak seat, had termed the Lok Sabha polls a semi-final to the Assembly elections to be held in October.